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https not working on Windwos XP SP2 laptop

I am hoping someone here can help me with a problem with my son's Dell Inspiron 5150 laptop computer. He brought it back from college this weekend with major problems. Basically nothing was working at all... he confided that it had gotten a virus, so he had been uninstalling everything and then attempted re-formatting and re-installing Windows XP Pro. It was basically a mess, but I managed to re-install the Dell laptop drivers that were missing and completed the XP "upgrade" installation from his original SP1 CD-ROM disk. I then loaded SP2 from another disk we had used previously from another home computer.

When I was done, I ran AdAware anti-spam software, Norton Anti-Virus, then cleared out all the old files and de-fragmented the system. At this point everything seemed to be working very well since we could connect to the Internet, browse sites, get Instant Messenger services, email etc. and the computer seemed to be performing very well speed wise.

It was only when we tried to go to the Windows Update site to get the rest of the most recent updates that we noticed that it would not browse any https (secure) sites at all. I've verified that there is no proxy set and that the firewall, Internet security, and advanced settings appear to be good by comparing them to a working machine on the same DSL connection.

At this point I suspect it could possibly be a problem with the computer's SSL certificate, but am not sure how to verify it is loaded and valid. Can someone direct me on the keystroke/cursor sequence for accomplishing this? Also, does anyone have any other things that I can check? It is probably something very simple that is incorrectly set or missing, but we just can't seem to find it. If no one here has any thoughts then we plan to simply re-format the drive and start from scratch.

Again, the only symptom we see is a failure when attempting to open or being re-directed to "secure" web sites. Thanks in advance for your help.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Shuman
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since it sounds like you didn't completely install from scratch, try looking in the internet properties for poxies, most likely the proxy from the colleage is still in there. telll it to not use proxy and connect direct to the internet. the laptop maybe using the schools system and it mite be blocking the Secure port.

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Real Programmers Do things like this.
http://webpages.charter.net/jamie_5
Reply to
Jamie

Thanks for the reply and your thought, but this is what IU had looked for when I saw the problem, although it would not explain why http sites worked fine. In short, there was no proxy set under the Internet connections, LAN button which is what we were using or anywhere else.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Shuman

Hi Bob...

Haven't followed the thread, and don't use xp (use 2000), so don't know xp's firewall, but just seeing this tiny bit triggers a thought, if I may?

Possible that xp's firewall (perhaps well hidden from the youngsters) prevents access to unrated sites?

Take care.

Ken

Reply to
Ken Weitzel

Hi Bob,

Best place to start is to look at the event logs on your son's PC. Then compare what services are started on you good XP when connected, to what you sons Xp is using when trying to connect.

Wes.

Reply to
Wes.

I also had disabled the firewall and the Anti-virus as well without success. Again, the interesting thing here is the computer functions normally for everything except web browsing to https sites. The problem is exhibited in both Internet Explorer and Firefox so it must be a setting somewhere common to both in Windows. That is why I suspected the certificates since these are used to set up the SSL connection.

Thanks again.

Bob

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LAN

Reply to
Bob Shuman

Try the Microsoft Knowledge Base .. its free:

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This link tells about inability to access https sites

Reply to
Darmok

You might possibly have a adware/spyware/malware program that is redirecting away from the intended site.

I just fixed my laptop from something similar, it wouldn't access Google or some others despite othersites working perfectly.

I recommend going to this thread and performing the routine given.

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--------- Then again, Symantec/Norton products are a known PITA when it comes to getting things to work:

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Just disabling Symantec/Norton stuff isn't always enough, it needs to be totally obliterated off the HD before you can be sure it's not the cause of your problems.

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--------- This refers to missing/damaged certificates:

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--------- And more:

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---------

Dave

Reply to
Dave

Thanks to all who have replied, including Darmok and Dave earlier today. I've forwarded your suggestions to my son who took the laptop back to school yesterday. I do not know if he has re-formatted and re-loaded Windows XP yet. If not and one of these suggestions leads to a fix I will post what he finds.

Bob

...Excellent listing of ideas and things to try deleted for brevity

Reply to
Bob Shuman

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